So different, so confused.

[newkidontheblock]

Honey, I'm confused. Your day seems fine in terms of naps. If anything, the only thing I would suggest is that after she wakes at 5.30, maybe going straight for bed at 7. That waking soon after going to sleep sounds like UT to me as she is having a one hour nap right before and then bed an hour later. As she gets older, you might start having issues with NWs with this current routine.

[sce]

Yes, my nights are decent.  The days are horrible though.  Each sleep time that I listed is usually only a 20-30 minute nap.  I can't keep her asleep unless she's being held.  I guess I didn't make that clear when posting my routine.  She'll have a random 1-2 hour nap every now and then, but only once a day.

What am I supposed to do when she just won't nap for longer periods?  Cause then she's up for too long and becomes over tired.  Today, she wouldn't even eat cause she was so tired.

She's pretty fussy  throughout the day and probably because she's so over tired.

She's still in her bassinet too.  She sleeps well in it at night so I figured I would try that since it was working.

[newkidontheblock]

The first 3-4 months are just short nap territory in my opinion. It does get easier when you drop to 3 naps at around 4 months. With my DD, what worked was to keep the first A short -so we only did 1 hour before nap 1, and we normally got a nice long nap. The rest of the naps were rubbish. Nap 2 was decent but the afternoon nap & the CN were so hard to get. After a short nap, reduce the next A time by around 15 minutes & PD once again. You might end up with more naps than you would like but at least she will get the rest she needs. What do you think?

[sce]

K I can certainly try that.  I'll try anything hahaha and appreciate the advice.

So what do I do when she wakes after 30 or 40 minutes?  Do I just entertain her, do I feed her.  Or do I wait and then feed her when she would normally eat?  I'm just totally confused.

So for instance, this morning she woke up at 9 and ate.  She was awake and not fussy and then I put her down at 10:00 and she slept for 40 minutes.  I tried to keep her awake for a while, but she was miserable for a while.  I fed her again at 11.  So now when do I put her down?  She's been up since 10:45 or so and now it's 12.

[newkidontheblock]

So what do I do when she wakes after 30 or 40 minutes?  Do I just entertain her, do I feed her.  Or do I wait and then feed her when she would normally eat?  I'm just totally confused.

Well, you would first try to resettle. If you feel that there is no way that she will go back to sleep, get her up and have some *low key* A time, feed her at her normal time & PD again for a nap after reducing the next A a bit.

When you PD at 10, did she sleep off okay? Why not PD right away? 10.40 - 12 is 1.20 A

[sce]

Okay.

When I put her down at 10 she only slept 40 minutes.  She would not settle back down at all.

[sce]

Also, if she happens to stay asleep, which happens sometimes once a day, should I let her nap for more than 2 hours seeing as how she needs the sleep since she isn't getting it in her other naps?

[sce]

K so here's how today went.  She was much more content, but it's not what I would normally do so let me know what you think.

9am wake eat
10 sleep
10:40 wake
11:30 eat
12:40 sleep
3:30pm wake eat
4:20pm sleep
6:45pm wake eat
9pm eat
9:30pm sleep

We'll see how the rest of the night goes.  It's the first day she's ever had 2 long naps and also the first day that she's been fairly content the majority of the day.  Normally I would wake her after 2 hours regardless, but since she hasn't been napping and has been miserable from being over tired, I thought I would let her sleep!

[newkidontheblock]

Seems fine to me. How did the night go? So you're going for a day from 9.30-9.30? Just wondering whether you would want to move BT and WU earlier. I'm a big fan of 7/7.30 BT so that I can get some time to myself

[sce]

Our night was not so great.  She didn't sleep for longer stretches as she usually does.

We were doing 8:30 WU before (which works really well for us), but lately she's been waking up later and I was just going with it.  I'm trying to take some of my cues from her.

Today hasn't been great so far
8:30 wake eat
9:45 sleep
10:15 wake
11:15 eat
12:15 sleep
1:10 wake

she's not happy either.  I feel horrible.

[newkidontheblock]

{{Hugs}} did you feel like she needed a shorter first A? 30 minutes can be OT. It might also have helped to go for nap 2 a bit earlier after a 30 min short nap. Remember that we spoke about reducing A a bit after short naps? How old is she now?

[sce]

k so I didn't reply right away cause I was losing my mind and wanted to see if things would change a bit before I replied again.

She has more times when she's not screaming and crying all day, but the sleep hasn't gotten better.

She only naps for 30-45 minutes and still only in her bassinet.  Shh pat doesn't work, PUPD doesn't work.  Soothers don't usually work, white noise doesn't work.  I just don't know how to get her to nap during the day.  It's making it very difficult cause I'm alone with the baby and my 2 year old.

Nights were great and she was sleeping for 4 hours at a time, but now she's waking every 2.5 -3 hours.  She goes down pretty easily at night, but we do have to hold her for 10-15 minutes. 

I know that sleeping for 30-40 minutes is usually OT, but how do I stop her from being OT when I can't get her to sleep hahaha!  Sometimes she'll wake up after 40 minutes and I try everything to settle her back down and noting works, but then she'll fall asleep on me.  S she's obviously tired. 

What should I do??  I'm really at a loss here.

[newkidontheblock]

Well, if APOPing a few naps to get back on track will help, then do it. So she is waking every 3 hours through the night? How old is she right now? Could you post the routines from a few days.

[sce]

She was 2 months on the 14th.

8:30 W E
9:45 S (only lasts 30-40 minutes)
11:30 E
12:15 S (30-40 min)
2:30 E
3:30 S (30-40 min)
5:30 E
6:30 S (I usually try and put her in the carrier for this one so she'll sleep cause she usually won't go down at all)
8:00 W E
9:00 S
12:00 WE
2:30 WE
5:00 WE
8:30 W

That's how yesterday was.  Every day is very similar, but sometimes once a day she'll actually nap for 2 hours.  Rare, but it has happened.

What do you think?

[newkidontheblock]

9:45 S (only lasts 30-40 minutes)

Have you tried keeping this at just 1 hr? I found that mine did best with a short first A.

WRT your feeds, you don't seem to be getting any long sleep periods. Generally, they can last from BT till somewhere after midnight at least (in my experience) why not try a dream feed between 10 & 11? That should help push the next waking a bit later. Are these wakings normal or new? Could be a growth spurt otherwise

I generally get the feeling that her day is very long. Is it not possible to put her to bed any earlier? In the long run, a 9 pm bedtime might prove difficult, especially with certain nap transitions. Even 8 pm is better. What do you think?